first go at auto guiding

[TiffsAndAstro]

took me forever to 3ppa like an hour. been going for an hour with auto guiding on m101 120sec iso800 since frpm the warm

subs look ok but a bit variable. there was some wind gusts. my ag seems all over the place so im blaming wind.

meridian flip is on, lol. i think it might not be needed.  pic is via chrome remote desktop to a laptop cable ratsnest

 

 

i switched to iris nebula might have 90 minutes on it. i recalibrated but phd2 wants me to recalibrate to a target nearer the celestial equator, gonna have to google that tomorrow. 

Edited April 14 by TiffsAndAstro

[michael8554]

PHD2 likes to Cal where the stars are "moving ' the fastest ie near Dec = 0

Michael 

[TiffsAndAstro]

2 hours ago, michael8554 said:

PHD2 likes to Cal where the stars are "moving ' the fastest ie near Dec = 0

Michael 

yeah i need to find a target further from the ncp calibrate then slew back. but slewing to anything other than what i can search on and frame in nina, and/or manual focus bright star targets seems impossible  the built in bahtinov grabber function seemed to work well though.

also after chucking away some frames im down from a goal of 6 hours  and got 1h45mins. 

[Anne S]

I use SGPro, not NINA but the process should be the same. To calibrate, I connect everything then do the calibration using Phd2. Look under Tools, I'm pretty sure that's where it is. Phd2 then more or less takes over and slews the mount to the correct place for calibration. Once finished just start your imaging in NINA. You won't be pestered with calibration error messages.

I always had an issue with calibration and the correct location. It's now really easy and quick.

[woldsman]

8 minutes ago, Anne S said:

I use SGPro, not NINA but the process should be the same. To calibrate, I connect everything then do the calibration using Phd2. Look under Tools, I'm pretty sure that's where it is. Phd2 then more or less takes over and slews the mount to the correct place for calibration. Once finished just start your imaging in NINA. You won't be pestered with calibration error messages.

I always had an issue with calibration and the correct location. It's now really easy and quick.

I’ve wondered about this. PHD2 doesn’t know what you are going to target & up to now I’ve assumed you should calibrate the side of the meridian your target is on. So I’ve not used the tool you mention. I could be plain wrong - more info very welcome.

[PhilB61]

So long as you get a good calibration near the location that PHD2 suggests, then no need to recalibrate either on different targets or after meridian flip. PHD2 knows where the mount is pointing and what side of pier and makes all the necessary adjustments. I'm a bit lazy and will often use the same calibration for many sessions so long as all my equipment is the same and assembled in the same orientation. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

24 minutes ago, Anne S said:

I use SGPro, not NINA but the process should be the same. To calibrate, I connect everything then do the calibration using Phd2. Look under Tools, I'm pretty sure that's where it is. Phd2 then more or less takes over and slews the mount to the correct place for calibration. Once finished just start your imaging in NINA. You won't be pestered with calibration error messages.

I always had an issue with calibration and the correct location. It's now really easy and quick.

When choosing to calibrate, phd2 seems to offer a suggested location that it will slew to.

Which I decided to ignore. Will at least give it a go next time THEN I will slew to my main target and press start

everything else seemed to go pretty well. But after a quick bit of processing it's a bit red noisy. Hopefully that's just because I did almost 2 hours of capture rather than the 6 hours I was aiming for

[TiffsAndAstro]

1 minute ago, PhilB61 said:

So long as you get a good calibration near the location that PHD2 suggests, then no need to recalibrate either on different targets or after meridian flip. PHD2 knows where the mount is pointing and what side of pier and makes all the necessary adjustments. I'm a bit lazy and will often use the same calibration for many sessions so long as all my equipment is the same and assembled in the same orientation. 

This is my plan for next clear skies Ty again

[TiffsAndAstro]

Just in case any is interested here's my result. I think it's ok for under two hours with a dslr

Star shapes look ok even in extreme corners. Not fantastic, but ok enough I think.

[Elp]

Think you're starting to get a handle on things now. Just need to start spending 10-20 hours per target at least.

Edited April 15 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

Think you're starting to get a handle on things now. Just need to start spending 10-20 hours per target at least.

Yeah I need another go with phd2 calibrated lower down. 

Then I should be able to get 5 hours per clear night.

I might even try sirilic to combine multiple nights. I'm not up to manual siril control yet there is a lot to read.

The 2 hours on iris nebula was an interesting result, reflection part was bigger and ok, but no stars around it. I'm hoping they were blocked by dust? If so I might try it again, but many many more hours.

Starnet blue screens and failed to execute problems means sn++ only seems to work if I crop in a lot. Not always though

[TiffsAndAstro]

3 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Yeah I need another go with phd2 calibrated lower down. 

Then I should be able to get 5 hours per clear night.

I might even try sirilic to combine multiple nights. I'm not up to manual siril control yet there is a lot to read.

The 2 hours on iris nebula was an interesting result, reflection part was bigger and ok, but no stars around it. I'm hoping they were blocked by dust? If so I might try it again, but many many more hours.

Starnet blue screens and failed to execute problems means sn++ only seems to work if I crop in a lot. Not always though

Also that image of m101 I put above is under stretched. Here's a crop and overstretch

 

Im still experimenting with post. I like space to be dark but stuff to be bright and clear. Getting that balance is tricky.

Edited April 15 by TiffsAndAstro

[Anne S]

They're nice images. As to the Iris, lots of dust around it.

It's stretched to show the dust! Possibly a bit too much.

[TiffsAndAstro]

4 minutes ago, Anne S said:

They're nice images. As to the Iris, lots of dust around it.

It's stretched to show the dust! Possibly a bit too much.

That's a remarkable image. Don't think it helps my wishful thinking about no stars in the center when yours seems very nice

I think I've been underrating dust when seen in conjunction with a nebula.

did you take that amazing image with a astro cam or stock dslr? How many hours?

[Anne S]

A ccd camera some years with several hours using LRBG filters. As to your stars, you've a larger field of view than me so the stars should be smaller. Also the camera was mono and much more sensitive.

[Elp]

Iris is very difficult to process. Some get results from around 3-5 hours, others more. My full project on it was 24 odd hours, but processing was ruined by unusable flats and odd banding in the lights which didn't calibrate out. My second result I did better with 2 hours but that was at F2, and still couldn't separate the dust very well. You need a lot of hours of luminence for such things, or image from a much darker sky.

Edited April 15 by Elp

[TiffsAndAstro]

1 minute ago, Anne S said:

A ccd camera some years with several hours using LRBG filters. As to your stars, you've a larger field of view than me so the stars should be smaller. Also the camera was mono and much more sensitive.

Not trying to compare, just very interested in context because I have very little

I'll be sticking to non emission nebulas until I can get a osc astro cam, just  iris nebula is some of both (I think), was visible and I wanted to target something I'd previously captured to see an improvement.

[TiffsAndAstro]

8 minutes ago, Elp said:

Iris is very difficult to process. Some get results from around 3-5 hours, others more. My full project on it was 24 odd hours, but processing was ruined by unusable flats and odd banding in the lights which didn't calibrate out. My second result I did better with 2 hours but that was at F2, and still couldn't separate the dust very well. You need a lot of hours of luminence for such things, or image from a much darker sky.

Anne's pic looks extremely complex and way way beyond my abilities, but having seen it means I will have another go processing mine, as I might be able to reference some almost not visible fearure in mine but clear in Anne's. 

Also, I really need to sign up to astrbin get some idea what others are capable of with similar equipment to mine

Edited April 15 by TiffsAndAstro

[Elp]

Astrobin is free to search

[Anne S]

I use Astrobin quite a lot to get suggestions of exposure times and filter to use. As to sky quality, I do live in the wilds of Carmarthenshire. Unfortunately I don't have many clear nights!

As the the Iris nebula, the above is broadband. Some targets show much better like that. I'm still getting to grips with dark nebula imaging. I managed the Witch Head nebula is January but that was in the Alentejo, Portugal! I wouldn't have done that well at home. Sky conditions are key. In light polluted areas you need a light pollution filter or narrowband (duo/tri band) to use with your dslr. If you do get a tec cooled cmos osc, you'll find it makes life considerably easier. Although I use mostly CCd cameras, I do have a ASI533mc which is brilliant and only needs short exposures - less than 5 minutes - to do many targets.

[TiffsAndAstro]

56 minutes ago, Anne S said:

I use Astrobin quite a lot to get suggestions of exposure times and filter to use. As to sky quality, I do live in the wilds of Carmarthenshire. Unfortunately I don't have many clear nights!

As the the Iris nebula, the above is broadband. Some targets show much better like that. I'm still getting to grips with dark nebula imaging. I managed the Witch Head nebula is January but that was in the Alentejo, Portugal! I wouldn't have done that well at home. Sky conditions are key. In light polluted areas you need a light pollution filter or narrowband (duo/tri band) to use with your dslr. If you do get a tec cooled cmos osc, you'll find it makes life considerably easier. Although I use mostly CCd cameras, I do have a ASI533mc which is brilliant and only needs short exposures - less than 5 minutes - to do many targets.

Ty for all this. My first astro cam will be some time in the future.

I'm bortle6 ,which turns out isn't terrible 

[Elp]

4 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

I'm bortle6 ,which turns out isn't terrible

You'd be surprised the difference even one stop down makes.

[TiffsAndAstro]

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

You'd be surprised the difference even one stop down makes.

My ability to travel will be  extremely limited for quite sometime, so I'll do best I can with what I have. 

[TiffsAndAstro]

22 hours ago, Anne S said:

I use Astrobin quite a lot to get suggestions of exposure times and filter to use. As to sky quality, I do live in the wilds of Carmarthenshire. Unfortunately I don't have many clear nights!

As the the Iris nebula, the above is broadband. Some targets show much better like that. I'm still getting to grips with dark nebula imaging. I managed the Witch Head nebula is January but that was in the Alentejo, Portugal! I wouldn't have done that well at home. Sky conditions are key. In light polluted areas you need a light pollution filter or narrowband (duo/tri band) to use with your dslr. If you do get a tec cooled cmos osc, you'll find it makes life considerably easier. Although I use mostly CCd cameras, I do have a ASI533mc which is brilliant and only needs short exposures - less than 5 minutes - to do many targets.

Well your amazing image made me have  another go at post processing mine, but for limited gear I need more total integration time, though I am getting hints of the nebuluoslity, nothing like your striking image.

As Orion (my reason for trying this simple, uncomplicated and not at all frustrating hobby) is too low now and my fov seems a bit small for the few reflection nebulas still visible, I'll just have to stick with galaxies. 

Except Andromeda which is also too low now and would fill my fov perfectly.

M101 and possibly m51 are maybe big enough so I might try some long multi night projects on them. Also smilie face in markarians chain and wait for November for Orion to return.

By then, I want to have try mosaics and get all of Mr Orion from Betelgeuse all the way down to er whatever the bottom right star is lol. Flame, horsehead (maybe not sure without it) running man everything. Good enough for an a2 print. Just for me.

I'm also very interested in suggestions for other targets I can get with my gear that I might not know of. I tried looking for where I updated my signature but can't find it again lol. My quote is better anyhow